


A Dart Through The Heart

by Arch_ie



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Fake AH Crew, First Kiss, M/M, just soft boys being soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 19:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16331747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arch_ie/pseuds/Arch_ie
Summary: Ryan spares a glance over at him, “Roll down the window.”“What?” Jeremy asks, but Ryan’s already rolling down his own window, so Jeremy does the same.Then, suddenly, Ryan is speeding up, and Jeremy can feel the wind start to whip his face. He looks over at Ryan, who’s squinting from the wind that’s hitting his eyes, but the older man keeps accelerating. He has perfect control of the car, and the streets are near deserted, so Jeremy looks back out his window and grins.The wind hitting his face stings, and he’s barely able to keep his eyes open, but this is exactly what he needs. The world outside is moving too fast for Jeremy’s eyes to track more than just colours, and he loves it.Or, Ryan takes Jeremy out to settle down after a job.





	A Dart Through The Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I'm bad at summaries I'm so sorry. I couldn't even pick a good part of the story to sample. Anyway I've had the second half of this story sitting around for over a year and I finally decided it was time to finish it.

After every job gone well, the all of the participating members of the Fake AH Crew, minus Ryan, go bar hopping. It was a tradition, an unspoken agreement.

Jeremy had been with the crew for a year now, knew this agreement, had participated in every post-job bar hopping, but today—

Today he just doesn’t feel like it.

He feels twitchy and agitated from the job going to easily, from too much prep and build up and too little actual work, and he wants to _do something_ , not just sit around and get drunk.

So when Geoff approaches him as he’s hanging away from everyone else, telling him to hurry up and get his ass in the car they’re taking to the first bar, his eyes desperately search for something, any excuse, to get him out of going.

He finds it in Ryan, who’s watching them with a curious head tilt. He doesn’t know why Ryan’s watching, and doesn’t really care, just sends him a pleading look.

“Actually, Geoff,” Ryan says, stepping forward, “I’ve got something I wanted to show Jeremy. If he doesn’t mind skipping out on the bar hopping, that is.”

“I’m good with that,” Jeremy says quickly, cutting in before Geoff can say anything.

Geoff narrows his eyes, though, still focused on Ryan.

“You better not be planning on killing him.” He says, pointing an accusing finger at the Ryan, but he backs away and climbs into the car with the rest of the crew without any more questioning.

Jeremy can hear them asking about why Jeremy isn’t joining them in the couple of seconds Geoff has the door open, but ignores it out and turns to Ryan.

“Thanks,” He says, letting the relief he feels bleed into his words.

“It’s fine,” Ryan says, waving him off before gesturing to his car, “Get in, then.”

Jeremy nods and climbs into Ryan’s car silently, still grateful that the other man had understood his silent plea, but doesn’t say anything else as Ryan starts to drive.

“So, uh, where are we going?” Jeremy asks after they’ve been sitting in silence for a couple minutes. It’s not that the silence was bothering him, what was bothering him was that he has no idea where they’re going. He trusts Ryan with his life – he has to, considering their job – but that doesn’t mean he trusts him to take him somewhere that isn’t creepy.

“Pleasure Pier.” Ryan replies simply, not even bothering to glance over at the younger man.

“But… that’s a pretty busy place. Won’t people be, y’know, freaked out?” Jeremy asks, gesturing awkwardly at the mask the older man is wearing.

“It’s a civic holiday,” Ryan reminds Jeremy, and he feels his face flush in embarrassment.

“Right,” He says with a nod, then glances at Ryan with a grin, “So, you take all the boys here?”

Ryan lets out a startled chuckle, shaking his head, “Nah, you’re the first,” He says easily, flippantly, and Jeremy forces down the feelings that flutter in his chest, because now is _not_ the time.

“You go there often, then?” Jeremy asks, and Ryan glances over at him. For a moment Jeremy thinks he’s over stepped, but a closer look reveals that he’s smiling. Not that Jeremy can actually _see_ the smile, but he thinks he’s known the other man long enough now to tell what he’s feeling according to his body language.

“Can’t go telling you all of my secrets,” is all Ryan says in reply, before turning his focus back to driving. Jeremy takes that as his cue to relax, and sinks back into his seat, letting out a heavy sigh.

He’s still wound up, and he can feel his heart pounding and he can’t stop his legs from shaking. He needs to _do_ something, but he forces himself to sit as still as possible. They’ll get there in about 10 minutes if Ryan keeps up the speed he’s going, Jeremy estimates. It’s not long – he can hold out until then.

Ryan spares a glance over at him, “Roll down the window.”

“What?” Jeremy asks, but Ryan’s already rolling down his own window, so Jeremy does the same.

Then, suddenly, Ryan is speeding up, and Jeremy can feel the wind start to whip his face. He looks over at Ryan, who’s squinting from the wind that’s hitting his eyes, but the older man keeps accelerating. He has perfect control of the car, and the streets are near deserted, so Jeremy looks back out his window and grins.

The wind hitting his face stings, and he’s barely able to keep his eyes open, but this is exactly what he needs. The world outside is moving too fast for Jeremy’s eyes to track more than just colours, and he loves it.

Jeremy lets out a laugh, and hears Ryan chuckle behind him as he sticks his head out of the car. Ryan takes a sharp turn, skidding wildly for a moment, and Jeremy can barely breathe, but his heart is racing and his body is filled with adrenaline and he can’t imagine anything he would rather be doing.

Then, all too soon, the smell of salt stings his nose, and Ryan is skidding to a stop, the breaks screeching and tires leaving marks on the road. Jeremy idly notes that Ryan will probably need to replace his tires, trying to push down his disappointment when the car finally comes to a halt.

“Come on,” Ryan says, barely cutting the engine before he’s climbing out of the car, and Jeremy’s only just starting to scramble out of the car by the time Ryan’s slamming his door shut.

Once Jeremy is out, Ryan locks the car and leads the way to the pier.

Looking back, Jeremy notes that Ryan’s parking job left quite a lot to be desired, but it’s long past dark and a holiday and there’s no one around, so Jeremy supposes it doesn’t matter.

The pier is dark, and Jeremy can’t help but wonder what exactly Ryan plans to do here, but the other man just gestures for Jeremy to follow him, so he does, because what else can he do?

Ryan leads him to the game area and disappears behind one of the stands, motioning for Jeremy to stay where he is. Jeremy isn’t sure what he’s doing, but he has a feeling he doesn’t want to know.

At least, he has that feeling until the lights come on in the game area.

“How did you do that?” Jeremy asks when Ryan reappears from behind the duck fishing game.

“I’m a man of many talents,” is Ryan’s vague response, and Jeremy figures that’s as good as he’s going to get.

“What now?” Jeremy asks, instead, and Ryan turns to him with a glint in his eyes.

“Now we play some games,” Ryan tells him, “Come on, I want to throw some darts.”

Ryan leads the way to the balloon popping game, and Jeremy doesn’t hesitate before following him.

When they get to the game, there aren’t any balloons set up, so Ryan jumps over the counter and rifles around under it for a moment before popping back up with a bag full of balloons.

“Looks like we’ve got some blowing to do, Jeremy,” Ryan informs Jeremy, his voice completely straight, and Jeremy lets out a snort.

“Well, hand ‘em over, then, Haywood,” Jeremy says, and Ryan chuckles before tossing the bag over to Jeremy – who catches it easily.

They fall into a quick system – Jeremy quickly blowing up the balloons and handing them over to Ryan, who pins them to the board. It takes some time, but soon enough they have a full board of balloons and Jeremy’s almost certain that he’d be dead by now if he had asthma.

“You’re setting up the next one,” Jeremy tells Ryan as the older man hops back over the counter, a bucket of darts in hand.

“I helped!” Ryan argues, but Jeremy just glares at him until he lets out a defeated sigh, “Fine. I’m guessing now would be a bad time to tell you there was a pump back there?”

“I hate you,” Jeremy tells him bluntly, and Ryan throws his head back and _laughs_.

“I’ll keep that in mind next time we’re on a job together,” Ryan replies, and Jeremy chuckles.

“I thought you wanted to throw some darts?” Jeremy reminds him, and he can see Ryan grin under his mask, his eyes crinkling and mask shifting slightly.

“You first?” Ryan offers, holding out a dart, but Jeremy shakes his head.

"I’m not good at throwing darts."

"Its just like throwing knives," Ryan tries, but Jeremy keeps shaking his head

"I’m not good at that either."

"Its easy," Ryan insists, and Jeremy opens his mouth to argue when he feels Ryan step towards him and maneuver around him so his back is against Ryan’s front. Ryan takes his wrist and lifts his arm, using his other hand to place a dart in Jeremy’s before using it to position Jeremys hand and fingers properly around the dart.

"See?" he says, and Jeremys breath hitches because he’s enveloped in Ryan’s arms and the other man is close enough that he would have felt his breath in his hair, had he not been wearing his mask

Then Ryan lets go of his hand, still grasping his wrist, and moves it forward in a throwing motion.

Jeremy instinctively lets go, and the dart hits the balloon in the dead centre of the board.

“Holy shit,” Jeremy breathes, his mind struggling to think past the shock of actually hitting something with a dart and the way Ryan is still pressed against his back.

“I told you it’s easy,” Ryan tells him, sounding smug, and Jeremy elbows him lightly.

“Only because you were guiding me,” Jeremy says, and feels Ryan shrug behind him before stepping away. Jeremy has to consciously force himself not to lean back and follow his warmth.

The spend the next little while in comfortable silence while Ryan throws darts and Jeremy goes out of his way to try to distract him into missing.

Once all the balloons have been methodically popped with no success on Jeremy’s part, they move on to the next game.

It goes like that for the next couple hours, moving between games, setting up what they need to. They learn that Ryan is terrible at ring toss, but Jeremy is great at it. They both do well tossing the ball into the bucket, and Ryan chalks that up to what he calls ‘precision grenade throwing’. They both suck at whack-a-mole, which is pretty damaging to both of their prides, so they agree not to talk about it.

Jeremy can’t think of the last time he had this much fun, spent such easy time with someone else. Sure, the lads were always fucking around, but this was different. This was an innocent kind of fun that calmed Jeremy’s nerves, took away that agitation that was left after the job.

It’s about one in the morning when they finally settle at the edge of the pier, leaving their feet dangling as they stare off into the dark horizon, the ocean crashing against the beach below them. The others are probably returning home from their night of drinking about now, if they haven’t already, and Jeremy knows that they’ll start to worry soon, but he can’t bring himself to want to go home. He’s enjoying this – spending time alone with Ryan, having fun. He’s always enjoyed spending time alone with Ryan, but there’s something about today, about winding down from a job with him, that leaves him feeling warm and _happy_.

It’s been a while since either of them have said anything, Jeremy realizes, but he isn’t in any rush to break the silence. It’s nice, and relaxed, even though he can see Ryan’s fingers twitching, can see him occasionally kick his legs out. The older man is getting restless.

Jeremy looks down at the ocean below, and suddenly gets a very stupid idea.

“Hey,” Jeremy says, quietly, but it gets Ryan’s attention, and the older man shifts to face him, “Wanna go swimming?”

Jeremy doesn’t get a reply, just a huff of incredulous laughter, but then Ryan is dropping down from the pier, landing heavily on the sand below. He looks up at Jeremy once he gets his balance, and Jeremy feels a grin grow on his face before he too is jumping down. He doesn’t land as solidly as Ryan, stumbling slightly as the sand gives out under his feet, but it doesn’t take long for him to get his balance.

Glancing over at Ryan, he sees the other man staring at the ocean, and it only takes Jeremy a couple seconds to figure out what he’s thinking, “Oh, yeah,” he says, “I guess we’re gonna have to strip.” He pauses a moment, “How cold do you think it is? I really don’t want to get hypothermia.”

Jeremy can almost feel Ryan roll his eyes before he answers, “It’s still warm out. The water’s probably cold, but not enough to get hypothermia, as long as we don’t just sit in it.”

“Great!” Jeremy says, already throwing his jacket onto the ground when he notices Ryan’s hesitance as his hands hover over his own jacket. He remembers that he’s never seen Ryan’s face, has never seen him out of the Vagabond’s signature clothes at all – except during jobs that involved dressing up – despite living with him for months now.

“It’s dark out,” Jeremy tells Ryan slowly, and hopes the older man understands what he’s trying to say. What he’s trying to say is ‘ _the night will hide anything you don’t want me to see_ ’ or maybe ‘ _you can trust me,_ ’ but it seems that, whatever he was trying to say, Ryan seems to understand, and before Jeremy can process what’s happening his skull mask is hitting the sand.

There’s a moment of tense silence in which Ryan stares at Jeremy, a hint of a challenge in his eyes mixed in with discomfort, but Jeremy barely notices before he’s laughing, because Ryan’s wearing fucking _face paint_ underneath his mask, and he honestly doesn’t know what else he expected. It even resembles a skull.

Ryan just rolls his eyes before shrugging off his jacket, a hint of a smile twitching at his lips. Next is his shirt, and, okay, that makes Jeremy stop laughing, because the guy is _fit_ , but only for a second, because under Ryan’s shirt is another skull, this one made of his chest hair. It sends Jeremy right back into a laughing fit, because this is just getting ridiculous.

“What?” Ryan asks defensively, crossing his arms and frowning at the shorter man. Jeremy just shakes his head, his laughter subsiding into slight wheezes as he pulls off his own shirt.

They both make quick work of their pants, undoing belts and zippers quickly, and are left in just their underwear – Jeremy in boxers and Ryan in boxer briefs, Jeremy notes idly.

Jeremy is the first one to make a move, letting out a quiet, ‘here goes nothing,’ before charging full speed – or as close to full speed as he can get on loose sand – at the water. He gets up to his knees before the cold really hits him and he gasps for breath, “Shit, fuck,” He hisses, then louder, “I thought you said it wouldn’t be that cold!”

“I never said that,” Ryan shouts back from the edge of the water, poking it with his toes, “I just said it wouldn’t cause hypothermia.”

Jeremy doesn’t bother to reply, just wades deeper into the rough water, shivering, before glancing back at Ryan, who’s still just barely dipping his toes in, “Come on,” he shouts, “Don’t tell me the big bad Vagabond’s scared of a little water!”

Jeremy doesn’t have to see or hear the other man to know he lets out a small growl at Jeremy’s words, but sure enough when he glances back Ryan is making his way towards Jeremy, wincing at the cold sting of the water.

Jeremy notices that the deeper he goes the less rough it feels, but he’s unwilling to go any deeper than his waist – not when it’s so dark out. He stands in place, shivering and holding his ground against the waves, as Ryan makes his way towards him. He sees the devious smirk on the other man’s face too late, though, and he curses the night when the taller man lunges at him and knocks him under water.

For a second, Ryan is pinning Jeremy underwater, his back scraping against the shell-covered ocean floor, but then he shifts and Jeremy is able to push himself back up towards the surface. He breaks out of the water with a gasp, and glares at Ryan, who’s shaking his head like a dog to get some of the water out of his hair. The taller man looks all too pleased with himself, but Jeremy soon fixes that with a growl of, “Oh, it’s on,” before he lunges at Ryan, catching him off guard and pushing him underwater. He holds him there for a second, pushing down on his shoulders, before letting go.

Ryan remerges looking livid, but Jeremy can see the playful glint in his eye, and grins before dodging out of the way of his hands when he reaches towards him.

They continue splashing around in the water for a while, dunking each other whenever they get a chance and laughing, and Jeremy can’t remember the last time he had this much carefree fun.

Eventually, they get too cold to stay in any longer, and quickly make their way back to the beach, where they stand shivering for a few minutes, staring down at their clothes.

“You know, we didn’t really think this through very well,” Ryan says, and Jeremy lets out a huff of laughter, looking over at the other man and freezing, because somewhere along the line the face paint washed off, and Jeremy realizes he’s looking at Ryan’s face completely unobstructed for the first time. He knows he should look away, but he can’t, and he sees the way Ryan’s eyebrows furrow when Jeremy doesn’t say anything.

Ryan glances over, and Jeremy can just barely make out the concern in his gaze in the darkness. He sees the exact moment Ryan realizes what has Jeremy frozen, and can practically hear his mind whirling.

After a tense minute, Ryan gives a minute shrug, and Jeremy takes that as an invitation, taking a hesitant step forward. When Ryan doesn’t stop him, he takes another, and another, until they’re almost touching and Jeremy can see every inch of the taller man’s face, despite the darkness.

He notes the stubble covering his chin, and the way his hair that has long since come loose from its ponytail and is now hanging loose, soaked and framing his face. There’s nothing particularly unique about Ryan’s facial features – he doesn’t have an overly large nose, or freckles, or any birthmarks. His nose is even straight, despite the fact that Jeremy _knows_ he’s had it broken before. He does, however, have a considerably large scar on his forehead, near his temple, and the skin under his eyes is concerningly purple from what Jeremy assumes is lack of sleep.

Neither of them say anything, and the silence is almost suffocating, but somehow neither of them are exactly uncomfortable. Jeremy stares at Ryan, trying to take in every inch, every detail, before hesitantly raising his right hand and splaying it across his cheek. The skin is freezing under his palm, but he doesn’t pull away, all too aware of how close the two of them are. Slowly, Ryan reaches up with his own hand and rests it on top of Jeremy’s, and the shorter man’s eyes snap up to meet Ryan’s icy blue ones.

There’s a moment where they’re both frozen, but then one of them is moving and suddenly there’s lips pressing lightly yet insistently against Jeremy’s, and he holds in a gasp when he feels how cold they are. Jeremy can’t be too sure who it was that had moved first, but he can’t bring himself to care as he drags his hand from Ryan’s cheek to the nape of his neck, curling his fingers through the wet hair there, and both of Ryan’s hands move to clutch Jeremy’s hips tightly as their lips move against each others.

Jeremy had spent a ridiculous amount of time imaging what it would be like to kiss Ryan since he had met the older man, and while in most of his fantasies the kisses were rough and dominating, he’s not at all surprised by how soft it actually is. He thinks that if they had kissed earlier, while they were both still wound up and full of adrenaline, it would have been hot and rough, but now it’s the early morning, and they’re both tired and much more relaxed, and it’s gentle and sweet and so very _Ryan_.

Eventually, they pull away, both shivering too much to continue, but they’re dry enough now that they can pull on their clothes and be slightly less uncomfortable than they would have been earlier when they were both soaked. Neither say anything as they slowly pull on their clothes, but they both catch each other glancing over at the other quite a few times in the minute or so it takes.

Even with his clothes and jacket back on, Jeremy is still shivering, and he’s lamenting the fact that he’s going to have to spend the walk back to the car like this when a weight settles over his shoulders, and his head jerks to find Ryan’s leather jacket draped over him. He glances over at Ryan, who’s purposely avoiding his gaze, and notices the other man is still slightly shivering himself, but he knows that if he says anything Ryan will probably take it as a personal rejection, so Jeremy slips his arms through the sleeves of the jacket and tries to hide his smile.

“Thanks,” He says, wrapping it tightly around him and breathing in deeply, just barely catching the scent of Ryan and gunpowder.

Ryan gives him a small nod in return, eyes trailing over him, before the two of them begin their trek back to the car. They still aren’t talking, but it’s a comfortable silence that’s hanging between them, and Jeremy knows that they’ll have to talk about what transpired between them eventually, but for now—

For now they’re both happy to walk in silence.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think or if you found any mistakes or anything!


End file.
